OLD SOL, LIBERATOR.

Hutt News, Volume 9, Issue 15, 18 September 1935, Page 2

OLD SOL, LIBERATOR.

AN ALLEGORY,

From out of tire primeval slime there emerged an uncouth, hairy, shambling creature, yet destined to develop Godlike qualities/For eons the creature and its fellows shivered in caves and rude shelters and went in fear of wild boasts Then they discovered the art of trap vitig and snaring, and fashioned gar ments for themselves from skins and ftirs. The creatures lived precariously on berries and roots, with flesh at intervals, but ever fighting for existence against B«»rcity, natural forces, enemies, disease, and the attacks of animals. And as the earth continued to revolve around tiie sun, the creatures learned to think more lucidly and then to talk. They developed a language, and then invented a method of counting, and' an alphabet but always they fought against scarcity and want. The creatures developed their faculties, and added to their store of knowledge. . " They learned to paint and draw, from the whistling of the wind through reeds they cultivated a Jove of music. By observing I lie movement of the stars they laid the foundation of science, but, never were they secure against want. As the earth sped through space, the •i-oa til res, dragged down by a self-seek-ing principle, and raised 1 to heights of erstacy by a desire to serve a God unknown, develoved a philosophy, religion Mill a conscience, Vet 'famine and starvation were never far distant but the creatures continued to strive mightily. At one particular passage of the earth around tire sun, observers on another plane noted a novel development. The creatures were capturing solar energy to do their bidding. They built crude and cumbersome machines which gradually became more perfect in design. They invented extensions of their arms, which tlrey named stream cranes and electric shovels, and extensions of their feet which they termed railways and automobiles. They developed contrivances to travel through the air, on tire surface of oceans nnd even below the sea. Telescopes and microscopes were built to extend their vision into the infinitely vast and the infinitely minute. They seized electrical vibrations and harnessed fhem as carrier waves to fling their voices across the depths" of space. The creatures constructed amazing power stations, mammoth' liners mighty bridges and their plants of production became so prolific that they literally carpeted the earth with desirable goods. But poverty and want remained the lot of most of the creatures. Yet they continued to design, to invent, to construct. They even produced automobile facsimiles of themselves, capable of low grade thinking, and called them "robots," but as these mechanical men and other machines were steadily supplanting the creatures, who now had no wages, the misery became intense. Some advocated smashing the robots, so the creatures could not all work by hand, and thus earn money. Others advised making war 011 a distant people in order to find occupation for their young men. Another group considered that the work should be spread out thinly, and that jobs called "public works'' should be created as an excuse to earn wages. The age-old ideas of hard work and scarcity were so deeply embedded in their minds that it blinded them to the truth. Then there arose among them a sage who said, "Lo, we are richer than Croesus. The sun's energy has enabled us to produce far quicker than we can consume. The age of scarcity has gone. \\'e live in an era of plenty. The machines should not be destroyed. They are our servants. Let us build more and still more machines and so capitalise the energy of Old Sol." "But Irow can wc buy the output of these steel monsters if we have no wages 1 the others asked.

"The sun lias delivered you from bond age, ; ' replied the sage. "By trapping his energy you have established a permanent and ever increasing credit balance of production over consumption. By issuing money tokens against this credit balance you can readily buy the goolls the machines produce.'' "What, without working for it?" they asked incredulously. "You have worked to such purpose by constructing machines that you have worked yourselves out of jobs. The machines have made your labour unnecessary,' answered the sage. "From now on your function is to think more and work less, because you are in the process of emancipating yourselves from the world of matter, and entering into the world of spiritual values." "But what are we to do without work?" some of them cried. "Learn to live your lives," said the sage. "The gift of life is too precious to spend in drudgery. Much of it is stupid and unnecessary. The machines have given us leisure, the opportunity to develop our physical bodies, cultivate our minds, expand our souls. Life does not mean the dull performance of hateful tasks, but the possibility of voluntary work, and the happiness which flows from it." And as the earth continued to whirl through the ether, the observers on another plane saw that scarcity, poverty, and fear had indeed been banished. Man lrad become like unto God.